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Funded Research: Faculty

Refinement and Enhancement of Agricultural Safety Curricula for Children

Deborah Reed, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Nancye McCrary, Ph.D., Co-investigator

Funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Grant #1R01OH009197-01
(8/1/2007 - 7/31/2010)

Abstract

Recent studies demonstrated the positive impact of farm safety day camps on the safety attitudes and behaviors of participants and their families. These effects are somewhat modest and tend to diminish over time. This project proposes to design and test the efficacy of enhanced curriculum materials and their delivery methods to children attending farm safety days in an attempt to strengthen and extend the positive effects of these programs.

A four-group, quasi-experimental community trial will measure immediate and long-term effects on children’s and their parents’ farm safety knowledge, attitude, and behaviors. The trial is led by the PIs of two completed NIOSH-funded R01 independent evaluation studies of farm safety day camps in partnership with the Progressive Agriculture Foundation (PAF).

Specific aims are:

1. Develop enhanced safety day curricula for three high risk activities for children who live on, work on, or visit farms, and develop supplemental materials to be delivered as boosters after the safety day.
2. Strengthen the training of instructors for the targeted activities.
3. Test the efficacy of the enhanced curriculum and strengthened training by comparing safety-related outcomes for children and their parents and comparing ratings by instructors in enhanced versus usual safety days.
4. Test the efficacy of the supplemental boosters by comparing safety-related outcomes for children and their parents who receive boosters versus those who do not receive boosters.
5. Incorporate refined curricula and programming into the PAF Safety Day Manual; share findings with other children’s safety organizations.

In Phase 1, findings from the previous studies will be used to strengthen the current curriculum and instructors' delivery of safety education in three targeted content areas. Materials will be developed for the safety day instructors, for classroom teachers of the safety day participants, and for boosters mailed to participants several months after the safety day. In Phase 2, a 2 (enhanced curriculum vs. standard) x 2 (boosters vs. no boosters) x 4 (repeated measures) design will be used to assess changes in safety knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Eight communities that hold annual safety days for children in local schools, grades 4-5, will participate. A balanced design, with 300 children in each block (total n = 1200), will be used. Data will consist of pre and post-tests for children, and telephone surveys at 6 and 12 months for children and their parents. Quality of instruction will be assessed through observation and analysis of videotapes made of the sessions and assessment by instructors.

This community trial will assist in strengthening the positive effects of an existing intervention that has been readily accepted in local communities. It has the potential to improve the health and safety of all children who attend a safety day. Children’s injury rates may be reduced through their participation in tested community-based, developmentally appropriate interventions that are grounded in local values.

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